Kantian Ethics

KANTIAN ETHICS

• A sense of duty (your purpose - what you are MEANT to do).
• Based on experience and practical reason (experience first then act back).
• Empirical, sense experience.

CAUSALITY:

• If you feel pain our natural reaction is to look for the cause of pain (the person who hit you).
• Law of causality is a priori, law of the mind which shapes the way you experience the world.
• Kant says we can never experience the world as it is.

Kant puts a massive emphasis on the human ability to reason.

• If reason is universal - moral commands generated by reason should be applicable to all.

We have a duty to act morally and follow moral law. Duty is different from acting out of inclination or compassion. Kant's theory is absolute, we should do our duty because it is our duty to do so.

Kant's ethics is deontological.

• Duty/obligation does not depend on consequences…